


Dropping Clues

by Blacklace



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, Claude is a sap, Crazy goalie, Dirty Talk, Established Relationship, Flower knows everything, Fluff, Lingerie, M/M, Sidney is a sap, Tanger is a tough cookie, it's just sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9471821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blacklace/pseuds/Blacklace
Summary: Five times the Penguins suspect their captain is dating someone and one time they find out who it is.





	

**Author's Note:**

> It started out with a picture of Claude where he holds a bunch of stuffed animals, one of them being a penguin. I couldn't help this, guys. I really couldn't.
> 
> Please note this work isn't beta'd, so there are probably some mistakes as I wasn't able to weed them all out.

**1 Philly**

“Why was Giroux slapping your ass with his stick?” Geno asks Sid on the bench.

“Yeah, dude, what the hell?” Tanger invites himself into the conversation.

Sid has to bite at the inside of his cheek to keep himself from smiling and try to play it cool. “He was just chirping me,” he shrugs. It’s not like the other guys have never heard their rivals making fun of Sid’s ass before. He’s the butt of most jokes in the NHL anyway.

“Want me to chirp him back into the boards?” Tanger offers.

“No!” Sid says a little too fast. He winces mentally and clears his throat. “I mean… let’s not make ourselves look like douchebags, okay? If they want to start a fight, we fight, but let’s try to stay out of it for tonight, okay? I don’t want anybody else ending up on the IR.”

All the guys within hearing vicinity nod and it calms Sid down a bit. At least know he knows they won’t try anything genuinely mean. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that he needs to have a talk with Claude about his public displays of affection. Even if it looked like Claude was chirping him for his huge ass somebody could start to get suspicious at some point. Like Flower. The goalie kept throwing Sid amused looks the whole time Geno and Tanger were discussing how they’d board Giroux without having to take a roughing penalty.

Sid, for his own good, wills his mind to keep focused on the game and ignore everything else. He’s good at centering his attention on hockey. He’s done it a million times before. Yet there is still that small voice within his head that keeps telling him to keep an eye out for Claude. They are supposed to spend the evening together and Sid really doesn’t want to listen to Claude’s bitching about being bulldozed by the entire Penguins roster. It’s enough that one of them will end up as the loser of tonight’s game.

Sid just wants a nice evening in, okay? It’s not like they get many opportunities during the season anyway.

They manage to beat Philly 6-5.

Sid’s whole body thrums with excitement as he undresses in the visitor’s locker room. Winning over the Flyers has always felt good, but ever since Sid started this thing with Claude it started to have a rather bitter tint to it. One of them ends up losing every time their teams meet, it’s inevitable. And tonight Sid knows what’s ahead of him. A sulky Claude who takes forever to relax.

“You going to celebrate with us?” Duper knock his shoulder into Sid and breaks his stream of thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Celebrate, Sid. That’s what hockey players do after beating their rival number one,” Duper tells him patiently.

Sid squints his eyes at him. Did Duper just use his dad voice on him?

“Yeah, I know what celebrating is. But no, I won’t go.”

“Why not? We beat those orange fucks, you deserve a drink!” Tanger looks almost alarmed.

Sid takes a deep breath to brace himself and pointedly avoids Flower’s gaze when he speaks up. “I’m meeting an old friend of mine. We had this planned for a really long time.” He even puts on a guilty expression for the guys.

“A friend, huh,” Flower snickers from the corner.

Tanger is the first one to catch onto Flower’s deduction. Fucking French-Canadians. “Who’s this booty call?”

“Are you seriously ditching us to get your dick wet?” Duper’s unibrow shoots up and Sid almost laughs at his expression.

“I’m meeting a friend, I told you!” he repeats, but it’s a lost cause. He might as well hold up a sign that says _I have a date, leave me alone._

“Sure, Sid, whoever helps you sleep at night,” Flower throws his towel at him.

The whole locker room immediately starts making up conspiracy theories about Sid’s hookup. At one point Tanger suggest it’d be hilarious if it was Giroux, _“you know, for tapping Sid’s ass earlier”._ Sid definitely doesn’t choke on his own spit at that. He does _not_.

Geno, of course, has a very polite remark for Tanger’s suggestion.

“Have to knock out rest of teeth if touches Sid,” he scrunches his eyebrows. “How many high stick you think, Tanger?”

Kris pretends to look thoughtful. “You can knock out two teeth at best with high sticking to the face. But with your strength and height advantage I’d say it’d take you a handful of times to make Giroux toothless.”

Sid immediately assures Geno that he’s definitely not sleeping with Claude and that there’s no reason to high stick him. He likes Claude with teeth, thank you very much.

If Flower looks more than smug after Sid stops convincing Geno that Claude isn’t worth the effort, he pointedly doesn’t notice.

Later, when the taxi drops him at Claude’s house and the ginger finally opens up, Sid complains. About the distance, about his own team’s cruelty, about the cold that settled in his bones. Claude showers him with equal amounts of his own complaints while they strip on their way to the bedroom. They leave a trail of clothes behind, Sid being mindful of all the new bruises Claude earned from the game. He kisses each one of them with a silent apology.

Their complaints die, eventually, smothered in between their lips and buried under gentle caresses.

If Sid shows up the next day on the plane with a questionable hickey just above the collar of his dress shirt, nobody says anything.

 

**2 Valentine’s Day**

The Valentine’s day rolls around and none of the guys make a big deal out of it. Some of them put on some effort and send their wives and girlfriends a sweet gift, because, well, they can be romantic, despite what the media might tell you. Then again most of them just ignore it as best as they can.

The Pens are on the road playing against the Rangers. Claude’s team is on a roadie as well, facing Dallas and then some. They text each other a lot before their games, just their usual banters and chirps. Claude manages to sneak a pic of yet another pigeon into their conversation and Sid laughs fondly at it. He hates pigeons, but for Claude he’s willing to make an exception and pretend they’re at least kinda cute.

There’s a text on Sid’s phone right before they are supposed to hit the ice. **_Got a surprise for u if u win tonite, my sweet penguin ;)_**

Sid has no time to reply as the guys are already leaving for the ice. He goes before Geno and half of the game spends wondering what the fuck has Claude planned.

They lose to the Rangers in overtime and Sid is pretty pissed about it. He doesn’t text Claude, just gets holed up in his single hotel room and sulks because he partly blames his boyfriend for the loss. He's a damn distraction.

There are results available on the matchup between Flyers and Stars, though and Sid can't stay mad forever. The Flyers won and it doesn’t surprise him that much. Claude’s team has been on fire lately. Finally, he decides he can sulk for his own loss later and texts Claude while he watches the highlights on TV. **_Congrats on the Valentine’s win. Wish we could celebrate together :(_**

So what if Sid’s texts are cheesy? He’s allowed to.

 ** _Sorry for ur game, penguin. Got smthing for u anyway ;)_** Claude texts him back.

Sid wants to ask what on earth it is and stop Claude from sending him nudes again when there’s a knock on the door. He goes answer it and there’s a young lady from the hotel staff, holding a baby pink box with a bouquet of roses.

“Good evening, these were delivered for you, Mr. Crosby,” she says politely and hands over the package.

“Thank you,” Sid smiles at her, baffled, and takes the small box and roses. “Who is it from, by the way?” he asks, so he’s sure this romantic monstrosity is actually from his boyfriend and not from a crazy fan who found his location. It happened before.

“Oh, the sender wished for his name to be remained in confidentiality.”

Sid thanks her again and notices there’s a small card attached to the roses. At the same time he hears a dramatic gasp on his right. The lady excuses herself and walks away while Flower practically shouts for everyone to get out of their rooms because Sid has a secret admirer.

Tanger is the first to peak his head out just as Sid manages to retreat back to his room in the speed of light. He locks the door and ignores any banging there might have been.

 ** _Got my present?_** A new text from Claude says.

 ** _Hold on._** Sid sends back and puts the roses in the sink. He takes the note out and opens it.

It’s a simple pink valentine’s card that has a handwritten message inside.

 _Having you on my side will always feel better than beating you on the ice._  
_Miss you, Sidney.  
_ _-G._

Sid’s face hurts with how hard he’s smiling. He finds his phone and dials Claude up.

“Hi, can you talk?” he shoots right after he hears Claude pick up.

 _“Yeah. Did you get my surprise?”_ Claude sounds smug.

“I did. The card, Claude… I-,” he takes a deep breath in, trying to relax his throat. It tightens with the storm of emotions. He suddenly needs to tell Claude how he feels about him. Why hasn’t he done it sooner? He looks down at the roses in the sink and touches their petals. He’d never peg Claude for the type to send him flowers. The gesture was surprisingly gentle and romantic and Sid’s heart is swelling with affection, threatening to burst in his chest.

 _“Did you open up the box, Sid?”_ Claude beats him to speaking.

Oh yeah, there’s a box.

“No, not yet. I was talking about the note you left me,” Sid walks back to his room and sits on the bed with the card still in his hand and the package in front of him. “It means a lot that you said it, you know. I like having you on my team more than having to play against you, too,” Sid admits. “I hate playing against you so much.”

 _“We’re both saps,”_ Claude laughs, but then his voice drops. _“That’s why we’re boyfriends, though, right? We are a great team.”_

There’s a brief moment of silence where Sid’s throat goes tight again with the affection bubbling up.

_“Do you have the pink box with you?”_

Sid swallows. “Yeah.”

He takes the box in his hands. It looks expensive, even if it’s just a simple baby pink tied with white silky ribbon. The shape of it is a bit flat like a box of chocolates would be. “What is it?” Sid asks.

_“Just open it, babe.”_

Sid tugs at the ribbon and undoes it. It can’t be a box of chocolates, the package is too light for it.

Sid chuckles. “I feel guilty that I didn’t get you anything.”

 _“I’ll think about something you can give me,”_ Claude giggles at the other end of the line.

Sid shakes his head at his boyfriend and lifts the lid up. There’s soft tissue paper in matching baby pink. From beneath it peaks a black material. It’s soft to the touch, almost silky.

“Claude, what is this?” Sid asks again and lifts up the piece of clothing. It’s mostly made up from lace and strings. It takes him a couple seconds to recognize it. “Claude!”

He can hear his boyfriend laugh at the other end of the line. His cheeks heat up immediately. _“What is it, babe?”_ he teases.

There, on Sid’s white bed sheets is a fucking garter belt. Complete with delicate strips and tiny bows. But that’s not everything. The box has a pair of panties to go with the garter and Sid’s breath speeds up.

“How do you even know it’ll fit me?” his voice sounds scratchy when he speaks.

 _“I just know, baby,”_ Claude doesn’t sound much better and it makes Sid’s stomach flutter with heat. _“How do you like the cut I chose for you?”_

Sid unfolds the panties. They are definitely his size.

“Is this Brazilian cut?” Sid doesn’t know much about women’s underwear, per se, but he has seen enough commercials in his life to recognize some of his favorite shapes.

_“Yeah. Your ass is going to look fucking gorgeous in them.”_

Sid has to close his eyes for a moment. He imagines what Claude has to look like right now. Alone in his own hotel room. Probably spread on the white hotel sheets, dressed only in a threadbare shirt and sweats, pupils blown wide. Sid lets himself fall back into the cushions, the panties still tangled around his fingers. He hears Claude breathe through the line and imagines the pale expanse of his throat. The ginger beard that scratches so good when they kiss. And finally, the heavy bulge of Claude’s cock and balls peeking out invitingly from the soft fabric of his sweats.

“Fuck, I wish I could see you right now,” Sid mutters.

 _“Mmm, me too. Wish I could see you in those panties. Watch how the garter frames your ass,”_ Claude groans at his own words. _“I’d make you walk around. Bend over for things. Maybe slap that big ass of yours. I know how much you like it.”_

Sid can’t hold back the groan that escapes him. His hand is already so close to his cock. “Why the fuck are you so far away, Claude?” he whines.

There’s a low chuckle on the other end. _“Would you put those on for me, if I were there?”_ he asks and his voice is a low husk.

“God, yes,” Sid breathes out and squeezes his cock to relieve some of the tension. He’s already half-hard just from Claude’s words.

 _“You’d look so good, baby,”_ Claude purrs.

Sid starts to drift into that sweet place in his head where everything feels fuzzy and good and where Claude talks him through everything until there’s nothing but white heat. He knows this will be over fast. They haven’t seen each other in over a month and it’s already taking its toll on both of them. Especially after they got to spend the new year’s break together.

_“When I see you again, you’ll wear your pretty lingerie for me, won’t you, baby?”_

Sidney whimpers at the smoothness of Claude’s voice.

_“We’ll get a nice, quiet evening in. I’ll cook diner while you get ready for me. Open yourself up on fingers while you think about my cock sliding inside you, filling you up until you can’t take it anymore because you're so full.”_

Sid’s mouth falls open at the thought and he lets out an embarrassing sound. It only encourages Claude to continue.

 _“You’ll be a good boy and plug yourself up, yeah baby? So when I feel like it, I can push right in. Then you’ll put on the panties and garter. Maybe some stockings, too, if I tell you to,”_ Claude purrs.

Sid keens at the idea. “Yes, Claude, please,” he whines, hands deep in his own sweats, working his cock in a quick pace.

There’s a loud bang on the door and Sid jumps up with a yelp.

“Get your ass up Crosby, we’re playing drunk twister at Tanger’s room!”

Claude laughs at him in the phone. _“Guess that’s your cue, baby.”_

“I hate them. I hate you,” Sid says through gritted teeth.

“Hey, I know you’re in there!” Flower bangs at the door again. “I won’t quit until you open up!”

“I’ll be right there, give me a minute!” Sid yells back.

Claude chuckles and his voice goes back to that beautiful purr again. _“I’ll call you later, okay? Don’t play with the lingerie without me.”_

Sid makes a tortured sound at that which only makes Claude laugh more. _“Wait couple more weeks, okay? We both get a two days break.”_

“I know. I just…” he lets out a frustrated breath. “Call you later, ‘kay?”

_“Looking forward to it. Happy valentine’s day, Sid.”_

“Happy valentine’s day, Claude.”

When Sid finally opens the door, Flower practically falls on him.

“The fuck, Flower? Were you eavesdropping?”

The goalie just gives him a shit-eating grin. “Thin walls, captain,” he shrugs.

Sid doesn’t believe him, but he’s also too scared to ask what Flower heard. If it was something important, Sid is sure he’ll hear about it sooner or later.

Yeah, he’s not wrong.

As soon as they crash Tanger’s room, Sid’s given a red solo cup with something questionable in it. He drinks it, thinking _fuck it_. He deserves a drink after being interrupted in the middle of what could potentially be a really great phone sex with Claude.

Flower lasts about half an hour before he loudly announces that he saw Sid receiving a suspicious pink box and roses. “He was calling his boyfriend when I went to pick him up!”

“Sid have boyfriend!” Geno jumps up and embraces Sid in a suffocating hug. “Who is boyfriend, Sid? I want meet!”

“Yeah, Sid. Who is the boyfriend?” Tanger asks from the floor where he wrestles with Kuni. There was probably an attempt at playing twister earlier, seeing as the mat is now scrunched up beneath them.

“We want to meet the boyfriend! How else are we supposed to deliver the shovel speech?” Duper hollers.

Sid just squirms under their stares. _You gave him the shovel speech enough times_ , he thinks. “I don’t have a boyfriend, okay? The flowers were from some crazy fan,” at this point it’s easier to lie than try to explain.

“Come on,” Horny rolls his eyes at Sid. “We all have seen you literally beaming at your phone the past half a year.”

Sid looks down and bites his lip. Is he really that obvious?

“You know we’re all okay with you dating a guy, right?” Kris asks and stops wrestling with Kuni for a while.

Geno hugs him again. “Yeah, we okay if you like boy.”

“Thank you guys, but it’s not that,” Sid scratches the back of his head. His heart aches with how great his team is. They’ve done nothing but support him and he sleeps with their enemy number one behind their backs. He’ll tell them, eventually. He and Claude agreed that they’d tell their teams when the time is right, but now wasn’t it. They should warm them up for it first.

“So what is it, then? Are you ashamed of him?” Flower asks and it’s a bit suspicious of him to ask that.

“No, I’m not,” Sid rubs a hand over his face. “It’s just that it’s still new and I don’t want to put that much pressure on him, you know? I don’t think we’re really boyfriends yet.”

So it _might_ be official that his teams knows he’s seeing someone. He should tell Claude.

 

**3 The Shirt**

They fucking overslept.

Sid jumps up from the bed as soon as he sees the time on Claude’s phone. “Fuck, shit, fuck, fuck,” he bolts and starts searching for his clothes.

“What is it?” Claude looks at him, blinking the sleep away from his eyes.

“The plane is leaving in thirty minutes!”

This makes Claude scramble off the bed too. He helps to throw clothes at Sid and himself and drives Sid to the airport in record time. Sid talks to Geno on his phone during the ride.

 _“I pack for you,”_ Geno tells him as soon as he picks up.

“Oh my God, thank you so much Geno! I owe you so much free babysitting now.”

Geno just laughs at the other end. _“Yeah. Hope your date worth it,”_ he tells Sid before he hangs up.

Claude pulls up at the airport and drags Sid in for a filthy kiss. “Next time stay the weekend?” he asks hopefully.

Sid just pulls him in for another kiss. “Next time I see you we aren’t leaving the bed until noon,” he promises and then runs out of the car.

He just barely makes it to the Penguins jet and when he does make it on the board, there’s a wave of loud cheering and applauding.

The chirping is endless and _bad_ , even for Penguins. Fortunately for him, Flower decides he’s going to be nice to Sid and cut the teasing.

“Let the guy live. Can’t you see it’s his first walk of shame?” he flashes him a knowing look.

Sid rolls his eyes and takes off his coat to make himself comfortable. He stands up to push it to the overhead compartment and feels literally the whole plane stop moving.

“What?” he looks around, because he can feel everybody staring at him.

He slowly follows Duper’s gaze and looks down at his chest. “Shit.”

Claude had to toss his own shirt at him in the morning and Sid put it on like the dumb fuck he is.

“It has Giroux on it!” Olli squeals from behind Sid. Great.

Tanger folds his arms in front of him and fixes Sid with an intense glare. “Why are you wearing Giroux’ number, Sid?”

Good question, Sid thinks sarcastically and scrambles for a good lie to tel. _Think, for fuck’s sake. Think!_ The whole team looks like they might strip him of the shirt and burn it right there and then.

“Uh… It was a bet?” he tries. _Not very convincing, Crosby._

“A bet?” Flower raises his eyebrow. Geno is rummaging through his bag at this point and throws a clean shirt at Sid.

“Change. Now. Orange hurt my eyes.”

“Mine too!” Duper throws a bag of M&M’s at him. Sid catches them with ease and thanks him while he takes off the offensively orange shirt. It smells like Claude and sex. Sid hopes he’ll find a way to keep it without the guys noticing.

“Jesus, were you mauled by an animal?” Tanger’s eyes are threatening to pop out of his head when he fixes them on Sid’s exposed chest.

Mental note: Never change in front of the team after a night of rough housing with Claude.

“None of your business,” Sid shoots back and quickly pulls Geno’s shirt over his head. He throws the orange monstrosity to the overhead compartment to his coat and slumps down next to Flower.

The guys chirp him to hell and back until the noise on the plane dies down a bit and most of the guys go to sleep or play cards. In the middle of the flight Flower casually leans over to Sid and offers him a piece of Reese’s cup. He knows Sid’s a sucker for candy.

“So…” Flower starts and Sid curses himself for not being smarter. He could’ve pretended he was asleep. “You have a bf in Philly.”

“No, I don’t,” Sid answers.

“Yes, you do,” Flower punches him in the arm. “Every time we’re in Philly you go out to get laid. And now that we established you actually have a boyfriend… Well, easy conclusion,” Flower clicks his tongue. “What I don’t get, though, is how you end up in a Flyer’s shirt after said visit to your bf.” Flower looks him up and down.

“Maybe my boyfriend is a Flyer’s fan and he likes to tease me,” Sid tries to play nonchalant and hopes his voice isn’t shaking.

Flower chuckles next to him. “Yeah, maybe,” he rests back into his seat. “It would explain why I heard you moaning out Claude’s name on valentine’s day.”

With that, Flower tips his baseball cap over his eyes and goes to sleep.

 

**4 The French**

The thing is that the more time Sid spends with Claude, he not only loves the man more, but he also starts to pick up French. He gets better with Claude’s patience and rewards. Eventually, Sid’s French improves to the point where he can listen in on Tanger and Flower and laugh at their stupid French-Canadian jokes.

“You’ve been practicing your French?” Flower asks him in French one day.

“A bit, yeah. Thought it would be good to brush up on it,” Sid answers and as on cue Kris shows up. Sid could swear the guy has a radar or something.

“Your new lover boy teaching you?” he gives Sid a saucy grin and then high-fives Flower.

Sid blushes at that despite his best efforts not to.

“Oooh, so it is your boyfriend that teaches you French!” Flower jumps excitedly in his seat.

“I wonder how much filth does our Sidboy know,” Tanger exchanges looks with Flower before they start spewing the worst filth they can think of.

Sid just sits between them, absolutely mortified that he understands everything they say. Like even Tanger’s “That pussy is so tight, baby. Gonna lick you open first, cream you and then stick my cock in you.”

Even Flower gives him a weird side-eye before he bursts into laughter.

“Is he a French-Canadian, by any chance then?” Kris innocently asks. “I’d like him a lot better if he was. You know, nothing against American boys here, but you’re such a good Canadian boy…”

Sid doesn’t want to answer, but Flower kinda does it for him. “Did you hear him speak, though? He picked up someone’s French-Canadian accent.”

_Fuck, fuck._

“Sid! You need to introduce us to him!” Tanger grins and Sid can’t stop himself from wondering when he last saw Tanger so genuinely excited about something.

“I never said he’s a French-Canadian, okay?” Sid crosses his arms over his chest.

“He is,” Flower fixes him with an even look, but all Sid hears is: _I know._

 

**5 Anniversary**

The regular season is a nice routine Sidney loves to fall into. Which is why every change or surprise in his day always throws him off a little.

It’s not like he doesn’t like the occasional visits to hospitals to cheer up kids or sitting down for signing sessions for hours. He likes that part of his job, too. The things that throw him off his equilibrium are, for instance, a fucking stuffed penguin waiting for him in his stall when he comes for practice.

All the guys in the room are quietly snickering, meaning they already know who sent it.

Sid rolls his eyes and inspects the stuffed animal. There’s a card attached that probably made the circle around the room, hence the knowing looks.

 _Reminded me of you, little penguin. So soft and fluffy, just like you.  
_ _-Love, G._

Sidney feels his cheeks heat up at the words, embarrassment mixed with affection for the sender. How the fuck did Claude even get this ugly thing?

“Sid! Why have penguin here? Is hospital day?” Geno walks up to him, all smiles and freshly fallen snow.

The murmuring and bickering around the room drops.

“Uh, I told the front office not to send me stuff from fans here,” Sid tries to save it.

The guys probably thought it was a joke from Geno, since the card was signed G, but now that Geno was asking questions, they were intrigued.

“Tell us who it’s really from, Sid!” Tanger throws his balled socks at him.

Flower, always the traitor, chimes in. “Can’t be Ovechkin, he’d send you penguin in Russian hat and with his number on its back.”

“Sasha bothering you again?” Geno asks and squares up. “If Sid needs, I’m talk to him.”

Sid shakes his heads quickly. “No need, G, it’s alright. Ovi didn’t send me the penguin.”

There is a beat of silence. “Your boyfriend did?”

Luckily their banter is broken up by their coach ushering them on the ice to start the practice. If Sid thought they’d drop it by the end of it, he was sadly mistaken.

As they change and shower, Sid shoots a quick text to Claude. _‘Ur penguin caused a fuckin riot here! I hate u!’_

It takes less than a minute for Claude to reply. _‘Love u 2 bby. Happy anniversary <3’_

Sid’s heart jumps in his chest a little when he reads it.  He feels ashamed that he forgot. Claude and he both had three days off starting today and they were supposed to spend them together. Claude would arrive to Sid’s later this day and they promised each other a nice evening in. Claude was super insistent on good food and lots of spoiling. Now Sid understands why. He wants to bang his head against something.

“What’s up, big C? You look kinda pale,” Flower jabs him in the ribs. He sits down next to him and starts getting rid of his goalie pads.

“I’m fucked,” Sid whines.

Half of the guys already settled on some mystery Mr. Gorgeous sending Sid cheesy stuff to the locker room while the other half thinks it’s another hockey player, because “Come on, it’s Sid, he only knows how to do hockey!”. They have a point, but Sidney isn’t in the mood to humor them.

“Has to do with the stuffed penguin, doesn’t it,” Flower says flatly. It’s more of a statement than actual question and what the fuck.

Sid shrugs him off and rushes to get into the shower. When he returns, Geno demands to meet boyfriend who sends cute penguins. “If he send penguin, he good,” Geno grins.

“I still don’t know how this plush monstrosity got here,” Sid lies.

He has exactly two hours before Claude arrives at his house and Sid already knows the fucker will pull all the big guns. Flowers, candy, wine, slow dancing. Probably some ridiculous present that will leave Sid’s cheeks burning. He desperately needs to think about how the fuck save himself the embarrassment of forgetting their first anniversary.

“Quick tip for forgotten birthdays and other occasions,” Flower leans into his space and Sid jumps a little. “Chocolate cake. Trust me.”

Sid shoots him a questioning look, but Flower is already leaving.

Despite what his brain tells him, Sid goes and buys the most expensive and best looking chocolate cake he can find.

Later when he and Claude finish their candle lit dinner and Sid serves them the cake as desert, Claude doesn’t hide the surprise on his face. He digs into the cake with enthusiasm and moans around the first forkful.

“How did you know? Chocolate cake is my favorite!”

Sid blushes and kisses Claude on the cheek. “Happy anniversary, Claude.”

 

**5+1**

It’s their last game of the season and they are at home. Both Sid and Claude have couple days off before the playoffs start. As much as they both want to focus on their games and let some of the injuries heal just a tiny bit, their need for each other is stronger than them.

Claude has the afternoon free and goes to see the game. Sid wanted to get him some good tickets, but Claude protested that somebody might notice.

“Will you put on my jersey?” Sid asked over the phone the day before the game.

 _“Only if you win, baby. Then I’ll wear your jersey for the evening,”_ he promised. _“I think I owe you that after the incident with my shirt…”_ he trailed, still sounding a little guilty about it.

Sid wins the game for Claude.

Everybody in the locker room is too exhausted to go out and party and most guys are quick to leave.

“Sure you don’t wanna go with us for dinner?” Duper asks. “It’ll be me, Kuni, Tanger, Flower and maybe Olli.”

“Uh, I’d love to, but I got dinner waiting for me?” he looks up from his skates and hopes it’s enough of an answer.

It isn’t, of course, because the Fench-Canadians are immediately on his ass.

“Is your boyfriend in town?” Flower asks with a mischievous glint in his eye.

Sid just shrugs. They don’t need to know.

“Who is your boyfriend anyway? Don’t we get to meet him already? It’s been like a year.”

The boys keep grilling him and they absolutely refuse to let him go. He tries to tell them that his boyfriend is actually waiting for him somewhere and he should meet him. But the pricks won’t let him unless he at least shows them a picture of him.

“How do we know he’s not fake, huh?” Duper asks.

“Or how do we know he’s nice enough to you, if we don’t meet him and threaten him?” Tanger pushes.

“You keep hiding him from us like he’s Brad Pitt or something,” Flower adds.

There’s a soft click of the locker room doors and somebody clears their throat. The guys let go of Sid in favor of looking at the intruder.

Sid can almost hear their jaws drop to the fucking floor.

“You lost, Giroux?” Kris squares his shoulders at him.

Sid ignores them and walks over to Claude. It’s so easy. Their bodies fit together with practised ease, just like that, Sid’s hands curl around Claude’s neck while Claude’s rest possessively over his hips. Their lips meet in a soft kiss that puts smiles on both their faces.

“Hi,” Claude murmurs and kisses him again.

Duper makes a gagging noise behind them. He’s the first one to give out any reaction and the others soon catch up. Tanger wolf whistles while Flower keeps chanting “I knew it, I fucking knew it! Tanger, you owe me a hundred!”

Sid sucks lightly on Claude’s bottom lip before he lets go. “So, everyone, this is my boyfriend Claude,” Sid takes Claude’s hand and laces their fingers together. "We've been together for over a year."

Everybody is kind of speechless and Sid can feel the pride mixed with affection filling his heart to the brim. They finally know who his boyfriend is. That heavy weight Sid carried around on his shoulders since they started dating drops. If Sid was ever afraid his team would diss him for dating their arch nemesis, he doesn't remember. Seeing faces of his closes teammates right now tells him enough. They can cope.

“I hope you won’t mind if I steal your captain?” Claude speaks up. “We have a date planned and he’s been taking awfully long to get out of here today,” he grins.

Tanger’s eyes snap up and he pales visibly. “Wait, it was you who put those bruises on Sid?”

Claude shrugs as innocently as he can. “I certainly hope so. Can’t imagine Sid sleeping around behind my back,” he grins and kisses Sid’s neck.

Tanger makes a pained noise. “Bleach. I need bleach!”

Claude laughs and lets go of Sid’s hand briefly. He walks over to his stall and picks up the dirty jersey. Sid almost wants to tell him to drop it because it’s disgusting, but Claude just puts it on.

“We made a bet. I’m holding my end of it,” he smiles softly at Sid. “You’ve played beautifully tonight,” he brushes Sid’s hair from his forehead and leans in for a short kiss.

“Alright, kids,” this time it’s Duper who clears his throat. “I think we've seen enough for one lifetime. We should go home.”

Everybody silently agrees. Claude takes Sid’s hand in his again and starts leading him out when Flower stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Just so you know, the shovel speech is still coming, buddy,” he tells him in French and it makes Sid blush. He has the best friends in the entire world.

Claude laughs at it and nods in acknowledgement. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, crazy goalie.”

“Come on, Claude, don’t let them strip us of our time,” Sid tugs on his sleeve and Claude lets himself be pulled along.

When they are out of the earshot, Claude leans in to whisper in Sid’s ear. “I can’t wait to see you in the new lingerie I bought you, baby,” he brushes his nose in the short curls behind Sid’s ear and Sid can’t help the full body shiver.

Ever since the Valentine’s Day Claude stopped holding back and started buying him ridiculous amounts of lingerie. Not that Sid complains.

“Will you cook, though?” Sid asks in a small voice.

“Better. I’ll order us take out,” he gives Sid a toothy grin.

Sid beams at him and snuggles up to his side. He enjoys the way his own sweat mixes with Claude’s unique smell and together they create one that says _them_.

“Best boyfriend ever.”

**Author's Note:**

> Side note: would anyone want a sequel where Claude makes Sid wear one of his presents for him?
> 
> You can yell at me about hockey [here](https://tangercookie.tumblr.com/)


End file.
